Slashdot Mirror
Build Your Own Weather Balloon
Leeji writes "Here is an interesting read about one geek's project to build and launch a weather balloon. The flight recorder is a small $200 Soekris Engineering computer running Bering Linux. It also uses a Garmin GPS, HAM packet radio, an automated Aiptek Pencam Trio digital camera, army surplus batteries, and lots of geek duct tape."
no seriously... why would you want to undertake a project like this? I highly dought its for the weather aspect of the project. More likely, I think the builder created the whole project just as a large experiment(as he said several times in the article), and this sort of thing I can relate to and encourage.
So lets think, if I was going to create a large complicated experiment, that involves fairly delacate equipment, would I want to have it floating nearly 80,000 feet in the sky? Thereby greatly increasing the chances of not getting the equipment back in one peice?
Now if it was up to me, I would choose an experiment that wasn't so prone to breaking things(or landing things on the middle of a freeway). For example I would mod my car with some sterio/radio/computer equipment... or set up a large wireless network in my neighborhood... or something to that effect.
Just becuase I made the first post doesn't mean that im a troll...
Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
You've just got to be kidding me.
When sending up weather balloons, flying model airplanes/rockets, making robots or building home computers in your garage are cause for suspicion, then perhaps it's time to re-evaluate what a "free society" is. Hrm, maybe the Canadian winter is worth it... wait, Mexico's warm!
Now shut up and hand over that those Lego Mindstorms!
-=sig=-